In Über das Marionetten Theater (“On the Puppet Theatre”, 1810) Heinrich von Kleist, through his protagonist Herr C., discourses on the infinite grace of inanimate objects. He says the marionette, unfettered by the need to touch the ground, is far more graceful than the human dancer. Only a god or possibly an animal such as a bear could equal the grace of inanimate matter, whereas humans are clumsy, weighed down by consciousness. This essay by von Kleist provided the concept for Marionette.

Roderik de Man and Jorge Isaac together make a musical representation of this concept in three continuous chapters:

Part I, for sopranino, displays the grotesque and playful character of the marionette. Part II, for tenor, is a lyrical reflection on “the grace of inanimate matter,” and in Part III the contrabass recorder translates controlled and uncontrolled movements into a chaotic fantasy. The sounds of the acoustic instruments are the main source for processing the live electronics. The electroacoustic result is made possible by the use of a detailed capture/transformation process from the acoustic source (sopranino, tenor and contrabass recorder).

Marionette was commissioned by the Visisonor Foundation (Netherlands) and realized by Electroshock Records (Moscow) in November 2007.